Phil Knight on how he thinks about Nike

January 07, 2026

Nike founder Phil Knight is asked if Nike is more than a shoe company.

“It is more than a shoe company,” he responds. “It is a company that provides inspiration and innovation for every athlete in the world. That’s our goal.”

Phil explains that this is a culture that grew out of his relationship with his co-founder and former track coach Bill Bowerman.

This brief comment really drives home a point Steve Jobs made in 1997 speech when he unveiled Apple’s “Think Different” campaign.

Below is an excerpt from the transcript of that Steve Jobs speech:

“To me, marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world; it’s a very noisy world. And we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us . . . The best example of all and one of the greatest jobs of marketing that the universe has ever seen is Nike. Remember, Nike sells the commodity. They sell shoes. And yet when you think of Nike you feel something different than a shoe company. In their ads, as you know, they don’t ever talk about the product, they don’t ever tell you about their air soles and why they’re better than Reebok’s air soles. What is Nike doing in their advertising? They honor great athletes and they honor great athletics. That’s who they are, that’s what they are about.”